badmojo wrote on 2023-09-27, 12:24:

I've been hearing a lot about Balders Gate 3 and it sounds good - the only thing stopping me from buying it is that although I'v […]
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I've been hearing a lot about Balders Gate 3 and it sounds good - the only thing stopping me from buying it is that although I've played a lot of RPGs in my day, I've never really gotten in to party based, isometric, strategy RPGs.

As an experiment I'm trying my hand at Divinity: Original Sin 2 first, which I've had in my library for years but never played. I'm making some progress but gosh it's slow going, presumably because I don't really understand a lot of the mechanics. Inventory management is never really my thing and now I have a party of 4 to deal with - feels like a chore. The isometric view bothers the hell out of me too - I just want to look ahead of me damn it! Even at maximum camera distance I still can't see anything much and it's hard to get my bearings, so I do a lot of wandering in circles. Battles are somewhat satisfying but I suspect that my strategies are primitive.

On the plus side the Larian writing is great - I loved Divinity II: Ego Draconis and this game has a similar thing going. Very clever and interesting story telling, well voice acted, and well narrated. The effort that must go in to all of those endless conversation trees blows my mind. And the world itself is extremely detailed and full of interesting things to discover, so exploration is well worth the effort.

But yeah, overall I feel like I'm controlling a complicated piece of machinery, disconnected from the world. I want immersion and escapism, but maybe that will come in time.

Honestly, I'm glad I didn't buy BG3 in early access. Not for any specific reasons at the time, except that I was done getting early access games on principle. On release, the entire aesthetic of the game just put me off. And the fawning coverage of how horny it was didn't help either. I guess I forgot Bioware made romances mandatory in "Bioware style" games, despite Baldur's Gate not really having any. I know BG2 had a couple, but near as I recall none of them "consummated" so to speak.

I'm just an old man now anyways. AD&D and 2e will always be my one true D&D ruleset. The 3rd, 4th and 5th edition games have generally done nothing for me gameplay wise.

badmojo wrote on 2023-09-27, 12:24:

I've been hearing a lot about Balders Gate 3 and it sounds good - the only thing stopping me from buying it is that although I'v […]
Show full quote

I've been hearing a lot about Balders Gate 3 and it sounds good - the only thing stopping me from buying it is that although I've played a lot of RPGs in my day, I've never really gotten in to party based, isometric, strategy RPGs.

As an experiment I'm trying my hand at Divinity: Original Sin 2 first, which I've had in my library for years but never played. I'm making some progress but gosh it's slow going, presumably because I don't really understand a lot of the mechanics. Inventory management is never really my thing and now I have a party of 4 to deal with - feels like a chore. The isometric view bothers the hell out of me too - I just want to look ahead of me damn it! Even at maximum camera distance I still can't see anything much and it's hard to get my bearings, so I do a lot of wandering in circles. Battles are somewhat satisfying but I suspect that my strategies are primitive.

On the plus side the Larian writing is great - I loved Divinity II: Ego Draconis and this game has a similar thing going. Very clever and interesting story telling, well voice acted, and well narrated. The effort that must go in to all of those endless conversation trees blows my mind. And the world itself is extremely detailed and full of interesting things to discover, so exploration is well worth the effort.

But yeah, overall I feel like I'm controlling a complicated piece of machinery, disconnected from the world. I want immersion and escapism, but maybe that will come in time.

I absolutely hated the Original Sin games and that's why I'm cold about Baldur's Gate 2 despite having finished the original and sequel (though not the expansion) multiple times. The turn based combat thing, particularly Larian's implementation of it in Original Sin which is incredibly gimmicky (exploding barrels in an RPG? Please..) just puts me off..

i finished gta 4, and both episodes 'tlad' and 'tbogt'

after playing for so long i, ironically, came to appreciate the driving mechanics more while still frustrated by the oft silly camera. helicopters are trickier, but then its a city full of skyscrapers!

in terms of story gta4 was most satisfying, tlad was good story telling but such a downer! tbogt was more in fun with less narrative strength. for fun and 'things to do' tbogt probably wins overall

to think this game is 15 years old!

choosing to play something next is tricky, i kind of want to avoid gta 5 (which i played a bit before) for now and maybe will go back in time to something late 90s, maybe one of the fps games i never completed - Sin, Kingpin, Unreal

Finished The Legend of Kyrandia - Book Three: Malcolm's Revenge by Westwood.

It's the worst in the series. The graphics hasn't aged very well with the early 3d prerendered environments. Sound quality was pretty bad on my sb16 so I played it on my gravis ultrasound which was ok. I don't think it has midi music, but some other format, I'm not sure.

Gameplay wise it was ok. Most puzzles are extremely far fetched with few clues. It's one of those games you would solve by trying every item everywhere to solve the puzzles. The fact that you can die makes it a little more exciting I guess.

On the plus side you have multiple endings and some funny throwbacks to previous games. The ending credits were awesome, maybe the best part.

Oh well I have finished the series and at least this series never went full 3d like Escape from Monkey Island. Maybe Westwood was already dead by then.

gerry wrote on 2023-09-28, 10:49:

after playing for so long i, ironically, came to appreciate the driving mechanics more while still frustrated by the oft silly camera. helicopters are trickier, but then its a city full of skyscrapers!

I actually really liked the GTA4 driving mechanics back then.

They were the most realistic of any GTA game, with each car behaving accordingly to its type:

gerry wrote on 2023-09-28, 10:49:

in terms of story gta4 was most satisfying

Absolutely agree! GTA4 has the best story.
In fact, when GTA V was released back in 2013, I was disappointed by its story, as it felt boring, uninteresting, with characters without depth (e.g. Trevor is just a caricature), compared to its predecessor.

Also, GTA 4 may not have too much activities to do, but had a lot of attention to details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWVtZJo-HqI&t=595s

st

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-09-27, 12:17:

Anyway, whenever I start to get bored with what I'm playing, it's always fun to scan through my Steam library and install a handful of games to try out. I've got all my games categorized by genre, which makes it a bit easier to find something that seems interesting.

I've seen people online complain about having a games backlog (a long list of games that they have, but have yet to play), and I think "What? How is that a bad thing". Having games that you have yet to play is a great thing, I believe. It means I never get board, and given how barren and unappealing the modern gaming industry is (to me, at least), it's all the more welcome that I have many games that I have yet to experience.

Here are some brief thoughts on what I installed and played:

Batman: Arkham Origins
I really enjoyed Arkham Asylum back in the day, and also liked Arkham City (though not nearly as much), so I'm not sure why I never got into this one. Possibly I just got bored with formula, since all of these games play pretty much the same. So far, I'd rank it alongside Arkham City; it's just alright. Arkham Asylum worked imo because it was basically Metroid with Batman... you could overlook the basic combat and stealth, because it was just so much fun to explore the environment and to fight and sneak through it. With the cool environment to explore replaced with a wide open city filled with Ubisoft-esque busywork, it just makes you realize how simple every component of the game really is. Oh well, it still looks cool.

Batman: Arkham Origins is a pretty divisive game. I loved Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Batman: Arkham City, but when Origins came out, I was disappointed. On release, it contained with bugs, such as sometimes a game-prompt (such as "Press Y for a silent takedown) wouldn't appear, so you'd have to step away from the opponent, move back again and hope that no one spots you and that the prompt appears this time, or enemies getting trapped in scenery (thankfully, hitting him with multiple Bat-arangs would usually fix the problem), or the game getting perpetually stuck in a short cutscene. Worst of all, the game-saves would sometimes become corrupt and unusable. And none of these bugs were ever fixed.

Origins also lacked much of the originality or inventiveness of the first two games. And the upgrade system was much more linear, so you couldn't, for example, choose to keep Batman's armour to a minimum, to deliberately give yourself extra challenges when in combat. The game felt more like an expansion pack to City than to a standalone game.

Two other things that people disliked about it were the fact that it was made by a different developer than the first two games, and that both Batman and the Joker were played by different voice actors than in the first two games. Neither of these facts bothered me, though. I thought the voice actors for Batman and the Joker did a great job, but my hearing isn't brilliant, so possibly I am wrong there.

But over time I came to love Origins. It does some things really well. For a start, it has the best story of all four games (including Batman: Arkham Knight), the portrayal of the Joker in Origins is amazing - he genuinely is unnerving in this game, unlike (to me) the Joker in the other three games. Origins is the only game of the four to actually show Commissioner Gordon as a capable policeman and leader, It has some of the best boss-fights in the series (though my overall favourite boss fight in the Arkham series is the Mr Freeze

And of course, Origins is the only game to let you visit the Batcave, and meet Alfred face to face. To me, my preference of the Arkham games is:

1, Arkham Knight. Knight has really annoying faults, such as too many tank battles, too few boss battles (or when it classes a "press X to take down [boss]" semi-interactive cut-scene as a boss battle), stupid parts of the story, etc, but when it works it is excellent. The game is long, inventive, mostly very enjoyable, lets you drive the Batmobile (and outside of Batmobile related parts, you can often choose to ignore the Batmobile and just glide to your destinations instead, as in the three earlier games), it's the only Arham game where you can use gliding to encounter different prey, and is my favourite game of the eighth generation, and of all the Arkham games.

2. Probably Origins, but maybe City - I can't really decide, they are both so very good.

3. City or Origins - whichever is not number two.

4, Asylum - an utterly fantastic game, but I think the later three were much better.

There is also a fifth Arkham game, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, but I've not played that, as it's a 2D scrolling game that I've heard isn't too great.

Demetrio wrote on 2023-09-28, 16:16:

I actually really liked the GTA4 driving mechanics back then. […]
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gerry wrote on 2023-09-28, 10:49:

after playing for so long i, ironically, came to appreciate the driving mechanics more while still frustrated by the oft silly camera. helicopters are trickier, but then its a city full of skyscrapers!

I actually really liked the GTA4 driving mechanics back then.

They were the most realistic of any GTA game, with each car behaving accordingly to its type:

gta4_driving.png

gerry wrote on 2023-09-28, 10:49:

in terms of story gta4 was most satisfying

Absolutely agree! GTA4 has the best story.
In fact, when GTA V was released back in 2013, I was disappointed by its story, as it felt boring, uninteresting, with characters without depth (e.g. Trevor is just a caricature), compared to its predecessor.

Also, GTA 4 may not have too much activities to do, but had a lot of attention to details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWVtZJo-HqI&t=595s

I agree with GTA4 being good, but I think the story in GTA5 is a little bit underrated everyone trying to evaluate the 3 main characters in isolation instead of a unit. Sure all three have their own characters and story arcs, but the focus is on Franklin, what he becomes by the end and what that means for the other two. There is a reason that game has multiple endings.

Looking to touch on these for my PIII/Voodoo3/YMF744 build:
https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/just-bought … e-glide.344343/
Thankfully bin/cue redumps aplenty. SD card for quick transfers between z440 and retro pc

Kerr Avon wrote on 2023-09-28, 17:43:

I've seen people online complain about having a games backlog (a long list of games that they have, but have yet to play), and I think "What? How is that a bad thing". Having games that you have yet to play is a great thing, I believe. It means I never get board, and given how barren and unappealing the modern gaming industry is (to me, at least), it's all the more welcome that I have many games that I have yet to experience.

I agree 100%.

Thanks for your detailed thoughts on the Batman games. I do like Origins so far, although as you mentioned there are still some weird bugs. For instance, my next story mission is to investigate the crime scene inside Lacey Towers, but neither the crime scene nor Lacey Towers is noted on the in-game map. It's not the kind of game where you're supposed to find this stuff manually, so it seems like a bug to me. I've also encountered the issue you mentioned where on-screen prompts aren't shown.

I was also surprised at how good it looks even today. The deforming snow is very cool.

When people complain about backlogs, I think it's more about how they haven't been smart with their money. Most PC gamers are buying games faster than they can play them. I don't think having a large library full of unplayed games is their complaint. It just doesn't make financial sense to have a growing Steam library.

That's a good point, but I'd wager that a huge portion of the typical Steam library consists of games purchased for pennies in bundles.

My pet theory is that most people that would actually consider themselves "gamers" don't really spend that much time playing games to complete them. Most just fool around with whatever latest game catches their fancy, and then move on to the next thing once the game gets difficult, annoying, boring, etc. There's nothing wrong with that, but combine it with cheap Steam bundles and you get massive backlogs.

Cultic

Just started this one. Very inspired by Blood, which I've never finished (or even got to the half point) because of its difficulty, but always liked. This feels like a modern, easier variant.

On my Thinkpad T460 I had to remove Color Dithering and Color Filtering and High Quality Shadows and Lighting in order to achieve 40 FPS. Same as Rocket League, I strongly suggest this is because of Wine / Proton taking its toll.

Whatever, the game has a big enough voxels anyway it doesn't change much visually. The first level is easy enough... We'll see if I can get through the 'Standard' difficulty.

Demetrio wrote on 2023-09-28, 16:16:

gerry wrote on 2023-09-28, 10:49:

after playing for so long i, ironically, came to appreciate the driving mechanics more while still frustrated by the oft silly camera. helicopters are trickier, but then its a city full of skyscrapers!

I actually really liked the GTA4 driving mechanics back then.

They were the most realistic of any GTA game, with each car behaving accordingly to its type:

i think the realism was part of what put me off initially, and also that the realism extended into unrealistic things - some vehicle turning circles and lack of grip at low speed is out of balance, some cars can perform a handbrake turn at car park speeds - but in general it is good and once i am in tune with it the driving becomes fun and rewarding. i still think the camera can be poor on occasion though, spends too long looking at anything except the back of the car and sometimes gets stuck - never moving from a side view

the environmental realism is great though, not to say it is like real life, but the design of the city, its labyrinth of buildings, roads and alleys, the way boxes, bins and trash can be knocked around and the character of each area is well done.

i'd agree that GTA V (What i've played of it) is less sophisticated but perhaps more of a return to the arcadey 3d era

Just finished The House In The Cemetery NES game. Fun little adventure game. If you're wondering, the game was Kickstarter funded. I might ask them if they can ask Nintendo to add it to the NES library for the Switch.

Awesome to see some other GTA 4 fans here! It really does feel more detailed and realistic compared to GTA 5 in some ways. I spent many hours modding GTA 4, just messing around and playing with trainers. Some nights to relax I would spawn in a cool car and get an NPC to drive me around on empty streets so I could just sit back, listen to music, and enjoy the cruise while admiring the details. I've been meaning to get GTA 4 running on my modern PC so I can finally crank everything to max... something I couldn't do on my contemporary system (Q6600, 8800 GT).

I've been playing a lot of GTA 5 Online lately though. Getting into the grind can be addictive, especially watching as those millions start to stack up. I took advantage of the Nightclub and Acid Lab business bonuses a couple weeks ago and reached about 32 million, which is more than enough for a while. :)

Playing original starcraft for 1st time on pIII/voodoo3/ymf744 build. nice game, looks nice on my 2007fpb monitor. enjoying the survive 30 mins of zergs, nice red alert vibes with the graphics and gameplay

gmaverick2k wrote on 2023-09-30, 15:50:

Playing original starcraft for 1st time on pIII/voodoo3/ymf744 build. nice game, looks nice on my 2007fpb monitor. enjoying the survive 30 mins of zergs, nice red alert vibes with the graphics and gameplay

Nice. StarCraft is one of those games that causes me to have an existential crisis with computing. It's system requirements are only a Pentium 90, 16MB of ram and more or less any SVGA card. The remastered version wants 2 GB of ram, Athlon 64 X2 or Pentium D, and 256 MB of VRAM. Roughly 100 times the resources of the original. And I would not by any stretch say it's been remastered such that it looks or plays 100 times better.

I'm not sure if it's astounding they got things so right with so relatively little, or whether it's horrifying games today struggle to be fun with probably 100-1,000 times the resources.

I just started Call of Duty, and I'm hoping that I'll like it. There's a tough period that I think many of you can relate to where you've burnt yourself out on a favorite game, but you hate the grind of getting good enough at a new game (or new to you at least) to enjoy it. But so far I loved Halo and all of the Half-Life series, so I think I'll like this as well.

Been playing through Black Mesa. It's good, but I'm not getting the same vibes from it as I do whenever I replay Half Life 1. I'm not sure what I don't like as much about it, but it might be how the gunplay fits with the graphics. Being more modern, I feel like I should be able to aim down the gunsights in Black Mesa, but that's not an option (at least with the latest build on Steam). I'm not finding it as interesting now that I'm up against the soldiers. I feel like I'm wasting a lot of ammo trying to snipe them from a distance when I can't zoom in on what I'm aiming at.

It doesn't help that I can't play for long without getting nauseous. For some reason, the source engine does that to me, even with the FOV cranked up.

Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition
Completed!

I've given this game so many attempts over the years, beginning with when the game was released back in 2002, but always got really bored with the large maps full of trapped and locked chests that contain mostly trash, the lack of party control (or even a party really), and the repetitive structure where each chapter has you working out of hub to gather three or four magical doodads located in areas in each of the cardinal directions from the hub. So it feels great to have finally completed the original campaign!

I played as a half-orc barbarian, and he ended up being a pretty powerful character. I also installed a mod that allows you have more than one henchman in your party, which resolves the biggest issue I have with the game. I had Tomi around just to disarms traps and pick locks, Linu for healing, Sharwyn for support, and Grimgnaw to help with combat. Even though you can't control any of them, just being able to have a full party like this improves the game a lot; the game goes from tedious to actually decent.

It's too bad that the game has such major issues, because there's some good stuff in here. There are lots of optional side quests, and they are almost always a bit more interesting than "kill 10 wolves" or whatever. Lots of quests even have multiple solutions, based on your build. It also has a really good soundtrack, and although the graphics are quite plain, I ended up growing fond of how the game looks when running at its "intended" resolution of 800x600.

It's a fantastic engine for an RPG, so I'm looking forward to the official expansions to see if Bioware improved things. I'm also really looking forward to some of the user modules (Swordflight is supposed to be excellent). However, I'll be taking a break from NWN to play something else before I try any other modules.